What to do, What to do?

I've fixed the twisted vest and even gone on to adding the edgings on the armholes. Now all that remains is the front and neck bands. On the off chance that no one has told you this, silk does not have a lot of stretch to it. Picking up stitches in this silk/rayon stuff is a whole new kind of fun. Normally I'd just pick the stitches up with my needles, but there is absolutely no give in this stuff. I've been forced to use a crochet hook. The thought of having to pick up a whole lot of stitches around the fronts and neck is making my fingers hurt just thinking about it.

So maybe I should start something new. For those of you on Ravelry, you needn't point out that I have 5 things that aren't done yet. We're pretending those don't exist either. You also needn't point out that they all stalled during the finishing phase. I really don't have a problem with completion, really.

So what should I start on? I just recently got this in the mail from Interlacements:

It's the March Sock Gang yarn. It's a solid this time because the pattern is for lace socks. The problem here is that this is not precisely in my "favorite color" category. Daughter, yes. Hot pink, screaming purple, those are a definite go for her, but I'm more of a "colors you'd find in nature" kind of person. So this wool will not become my next pair of socks, which is probably just as well. I've recently joined the Tsock Flock and Sock Wars, so there will be a lot of socks in my future. I'm thinking that this could turn into a few mittens for daughter. This would be good because she has lost several mittens this year, and hopefully by knitting cold weather gear for her I can bring on some warm weather. I figure if washing my car makes it rain, maybe knitting mittens can turn the temperature up to 80 F.

The other option is probably a bad idea. You see, lately I've been hankering for a Dale Ski Team sweater. This is probably because it has been so cold for so long that I am sick to death of all of my sweaters. Whatever the reason, I've been thinking about making one of these, but I do not have the wool on hand. This would mean shopping. For a large amount of wool. A large amount of not inexpensive wool. (We'll see if I can confuse Husband with the double negative there.) What to do, what to do?

*Edited later to add*

OR, now that the mailman has come, I could give up knitting for a bit and do some reading.

Unseamly

You may recall that during the edging fest for Daughter's stole I started another project. I wanted something that I could work on without having to pay that much attention to. I made Daughter a vest out of some silk/rayon that I got from Interlacements last year at Stitches Midwest. The knitting went quickly and easily and now all I have to do is sew up the seams and put on the edgings. First I sew up the side seams.


Then I sew up the shoulder seams.

Then I look at what I've done and start crying.

That would be a full twist in the right front between the armhole and the shoulder. I have seen many things with a mobius in the design, but never have I seen a vest front with an intentional twist. It's shocking how creative I actually am. If it weren't for the fact that Daughter is one of the pickiest dressers ever I would just throw a matching twist in the other side and call it a design feature. It almost, sort of, perhaps, looks like a cable.

Excuse me while I go and unseam my mindless knitting project for a while.

F is for ...

Finally Finished and Frozen

On Thursday I spent a marathon day knitting (which included ignoring Mt. Laundry) and finally finished the edging on Daughter's stole.

Then I gave it a nice bath and performed the magic blocking trick:

Voila. Finished and ready for use on Easter morning by Daughter.

Which is good because as predicted, it was freezing. In fact on Friday we got this:

What I am sincerely hoping is the last snow of the 07/08 season. I am so ready for warm weather I can't even begin to describe it.

More Questions

I have cooked my fish (loosely speaking) on a nonstandard pan and have lived to tell the tale. The experience has led me to do some soul searching, some philosophical meditation, if you will. I am nearing one of the "milestone" birthdays this year, and I have been taking an inventory of my life situation and I have a few questions that I am still struggling with.

1. At what age will a reasonable person come to grips with the fact that the toilet paper does not, in fact, magically teleport itself onto the spindle?

2. In a related query, when will a reasonable person look to see if there is any toilet paper available BEFORE doing their business?


3. When will the edging end?


4. Why, if the edging is not ending, do I feel compelled to make a vest for Daughter?


5. When will I cave in and purchase an office chair whose back does not fall off every time I stand up?

6. And finally, what is wrong with these women? I need to know, is everyone in New York City like this? I am hoping that the name, "Real Housewives of New York City," is sort of sick joke. After watching for about 15 minutes I couldn't take it any more and had to change the channel. I'm pretty sure I outgrew most of that kind of behavior when I was 15.

Why?

I'm having trouble here on step 2. If it had just said to put the "fish fillets" on a baking pan I wouldn't have thought twice about it. But they had to throw in the 4-sided part. Why? What horrible thing will happen if I should happen to cook my Friday fish amalgamated bits pressed together to look like fillets on a triangular pan? What kind of cosmic error would it be to put them in a round cake pan? These kinds of things interest me, so I am going to tempt fate and cook my fish on a circular pizza pan. If you don't hear from me for a long while, you can assume that there really was a reason to use a 4-sided pan.

Signs of Spring

There are finally signs that spring might actually arrive this year. First is this:

Cookie sitting in the sunlight in front of the open screen door. The screen door hasn't been used since sometime in October if I recall correctly. Granted, it was only open for about an hour this morning while the sun was shining directly in, but still, it's progress.

Second, there's this:

I voluntarily went outside to take a picture of Anna's stole. Notice that there isn't any snow on the back porch. This makes me very happy. It also makes me happy that the stole edging is about 2/3 done. I think (knock on wood) this baby might be ready in time for Easter.

And finally:

It's not actually warm enough to be playing outside without a jacket, but Daughter runs several degrees warmer than the average person, so she's happy.

Enormous?

Does this carpet make me look fat?

Ergonomic?

E is For...

Edging

I've started putting the edging on Daughter's stole. As you can see it's pretty wide and it will go all the way around, so it'll take a little while to get it done. My speed will not be improved by Husband's attitude lately which is, "If you're knitting you're not paying attention to me." I haven't been reading or knitting in the evenings when he's around for the last week or two. Cuts into the productivity time, but makes him happier. Now when he's out playing tennis...



E is also for Evildoer. Yesterday I got a call from Son, who was at the train station. He was calling to let me know that someone had broken into his car and stolen his stereo. Son does not drive a fancy car and he didn't have a fancy stereo so I'm wondering what made Evildoer decide to choose his car out of the entire parking lot full of cars. On the plus side, Evildoer didn't break any windows (he punched a small hole in the passenger side door under the handle) and when he removed the stereo he unplugged the connections, rather than just cutting the wires. Son got to spend a couple of hours with a Sheriff's deputy and a C.S.I. guy, including having his fingerprints taken. Luckily we had the box the stereo came in with the serial number on it, so if Evildoer tries to pawn the radio in a reputable(?) pawn shop it will come up as being stolen property. Of course the odds of this happening are somewhat small; I'd give slightly better odds on the second coming happening tomorrow. I try to be a kind and forgiving person, but I must admit that there is a small part of me who hopes that Evildoer accidentally electrocutes himself when he tries to install the stereo.